Please send housecleaning robots, k thx bai

31. July 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I hate housework. But I like a (mostly) clean house. Also housework takes away from more important and fun activities like programming and hanging with your family or friends. For most of my unpleasant tasks, I try to find technology that will help or motivate me. I have electronic to do lists and exercise trackers. I’m writing two programs, one as a friendly weight loss competition between me and my husband and one to store recipes and on hand ingredients to make cooking easier.

But for the most basic chores, technology has still not come up with better solutions. Washing dishes is about as good as it’s going to get, unless they come up with a way to put the dishes away automatically. There are robotic vacuums and mops. I have a vacuum, which works reasonably well for a quick clean, but for deeper cleaning, I have to use old school methods. And laundry is still a major chore. Why wash and dry in separate bins? Where’s my laundry folding robot? I know. It’s a really hard problem and expensive to solve. I could use something to poke the rest of my family, too. I’d love to send a robot into the kids rooms, wake them up, and assign them some chores, prodding them until they’re completed. Could be done with enough effort, I’m sure. Maybe one to poke Mr. Geeky, too, at least until the other robots are invented.

An organizing robot would be nice, too. Couldn’t there be a special sorting algorithm to determine the ideal placement for everything in your house? That would be awesome. If anyone wants to invent these things, go right ahead. I won’t even ask for a cut, as long as I am saved from housework.

Reading . . . Or not

30. July 2012 · 11 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

I read mostly non-fiction. I sometimes read memoir, which is the closest I get to fiction these days. I’ve read exactly two books this summer, one non-fiction and one memoir. I’d like to read some more, and I’d actually like to not watch tv. That’s a hard thing considering my current habit of falling asleep to it. But that could be replaced by reading, which I used to do many years ago.

That’s just one of the habits I’d like to develop. And I figured I should start now. So, I’m going to look for a few good books to read, but I’d love some recommendations.

Progress

28. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I’ve made some significant progress on the goals I set for myself.  I’ve outlined the CS II class through about winter break.  I’ve got the first 3-4 weeks almost completely fleshed out, complete with lab directions and video explanations of key concepts.  I submitted my Google Academy application, so now it’s just a waiting game. My video is here, if you’re interested.  I’m almost done with rearranging/organizing my front room–will finish that up this morning.  And, of course, I actually did tweak the blog.

I still have the most work to do on the CS II class as I’m having to learn some of the very concepts I’m teaching. I’m doing pretty well on that front, but I think I’m going to dip my toe into a Udacity class I signed up for to solidify what I know.  I just need the practice.

I’ll be adding to that list soon–I’ve already thought of a few other things I need to get done before the school year begins.  Yikes!

Friday Fun: Geek Edition

27. July 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I’m in a kind of low-key mode today.  I had to get up early for an appointment, which lasted about 2 hours, and I now have little energy for anything that requires major thought.  So, of course, I’m tinkering with the blog.  Back in the day, say 2003, 2004, I used to tinker on the blog all the time.  Partly, that was because I was just learning the ropes, and partly, I just thought it was fun.  I mean, it was the heyday of blogging, just before it went really mainstream and every media outlet on the planet got themselves a blog.  It was crucial to keep my blog looking slick.  Nowadays, with most people reading through readers, or just following me on Facebook or Twitter, blog maintenance is not a high priority.

But today, I thought, hey, let’s make some changes.  So, I’ve added a new image at the top, changed around some widgets, and even added a blogroll!  Remember blogrolling?  The actual site?  I loved that tool.  I liked it because it was mostly automatic.  You could be reading a blog and decide, hey, I like that, click a button and voila! in the blogroll.  I hadn’t found anything like that until today–really, I hadn’t looked that hard.  Many of you out there probably already know this, but you can feed your Google Reader feeds right to your blog.  It’s not as obvious as it should be.  But here’s what I did.  I have my feeds organized into folders: Computer Science, Eduction, Fun, etc.  Next to each folder, there’s a drop-down menu.  In that menu is a thing called “Create Bundle.”  What this does is “bundle up” the feeds in that folder into their own separate RSS feed.  Once you have a bundle, you have a couple of options for getting the bundle onto your blog.  One, you can use the Bundle Clip.  This creates a box with a list of all your feeds.  Handy, but only lists the feeds in alphabetical order.  I haven’t cleaned up my feeds lately and there are a lot of feeds that are defunct and they’re right there with the ones that aren’t.  No good for me.  I opted instead to find a plug-in for Word Press that displays RSS feeds nicely.  I went through 3 or 4 before I landed on Super RSS.  It works quite nicely, displaying the feeds in order of update, with snippets (optional).  If you’re not a Word Press person, I’m sure there’s something similar for most platforms.

I’d love to do more customization, digging into the CSS and PHP, but I don’t really have any ideas on what big changes I might make.  This will do for now.  And speaking of the old days of blogging, I remember when this cute video went around:

Programming frustration

26. July 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I’m at the point now where the programming I’m doing is a lot more complicated.  Last summer, I was writing things that I could basically finish in 1/2 hour.  Now, I’m writing things that take days or god forbid, weeks.  Mr. Geeky, like many programmers, will often try to complete a program that should take days in 24 hours.  He does this with the help of Mountain Dew and absolutely no breaks, including for actual food.  This, of course, is the stereotypical way.  But I can’t work that way.  Now, I have been known to get caught up in solving a problem and working way past a normal lunch time, but eventually, my stomach yells at me.  Also, I can’t really focus when I’m tried, hungry, or frustrated.

I feel that it’s important to offer different ways of working.  While I do know girls who work in the “typical” way, coding until they’re done, that doesn’t work for everyone.  I find, for myself, if I walk away, for an hour, for a day, I often can get a better perspective and solve the problem more quickly. I share my methods with my students, so that they can see other ways of doing things.

Maybe I’ll develop other ways of working as I keep doing this.  For now, it works.

Food and its (Dis)Contents

24. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,
First round of food

First round of food (Photo credit: lorda)

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Laura wrote today about her and her family’s struggles with food.  I feel her pain.  Mr. Geeky and I both would like to lose weight, but we are both too busy and too lazy (in many ways) to make it happen.  A while back I wrote about loving to experience my food fully.  That often involves food that’s not great for me.  Mr. Geeky is less interested in the whole food experience.  For him, food is more about fuel.  There are days he gets so involved in work, he forgets to eat.  Then some colleague will wander by, suggest they go out to eat, and next thing you know, he’s had 2000 calories.

Mr. Geeky doesn’t cook.  He finds it a foreign enterprise.  He will grill, but I have to plan the meal. We’ve compromised by having Mr. Geeky do the grocery shopping, though he’s not as picky about what he’s buying, organic or grass-fed beef, forget it.  We have tried this summer to cut back on carbs, especially sugar and increase our veggies.  It’s hard.  As Laura pointed out, it takes more time to prepare a meal made mostly of veggies.  We’re just not used to it.  I usually throw on some pasta and sauce and call it a day.

Right now, I have the luxury of time to shop, plan, and cook all I want, but once school starts, time will be short, and it’s likely I’ll be back to throwing around pasta.  I had managed to incorporate some exercise into my life before leaving for India, but haven’t gotten back to it.  So, I need to move more and eat less.  And do it in a limited amount of time.  Sigh.

And it sort of takes the joy out of it sometimes.  I love going to the farmer’s market, making meals, and, of course, eating.  But when I have to think about it so much, it makes it slightly less enjoyable.  So, I need to figure out things to do that will not detract from the enjoyment so much.

Goals and resolutions

18. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I was starting to think about goals for the school year, but then decided I was getting ahead of myself. I still have summer! So here’s what I want need to do:

  • Plan CS II class, at least through winter break–this is going to require some quality time with data structures, classes and objects
  • Put together Google teacher’s academy application–this should go first since it’s due in two weeks!
  • Tweak CS I class–this will be easy since I only want to change a couple of things
  • Revamp 8th grade tech class with a focus on data visualization
  • Write a chapter or two for a project on CS education–also has some priority since there’s a deadline. Will likely set aside a day or two to hash something out.
  • Clean out/purge and rearrange my front room. This is in progress and something I’d like to complete by the end of summer as a good start to creating a sustainable living area.
  • I’d also like to revamp the blog, but that’s not a huge priority.

Better get started! Gotta go!

Sustainability

17. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

This is my new mantra. I mean it in terms of earth-saving but I also mean it in terms of doing things that can be sustained. On the earth-saving front, I’ve started composting and redoubling my recycling/reuse efforts. I’m trying mostly to be more conscious of using plastic bags, which seem to multiply like rabbits around my house.

On sustaining activity, I’m still trying to figure out what works best. I’m purging things, which I think is going to help. We just have too much stuff. I can’t tell you how much time and money we lose because we can’t find something. I’m also trying to think about putting habits in place that I’m likely to stick with because they’re easy. I had started running, but I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. It seriously hurt my body. I’m still figuring out what to replace it with and when. Walking is a good option, of course, and I’m contemplating some yoga again. I’ve also changed some eating habits. Mr. Geeky and I are making a concerted effort to eat less carbs and more fruits and veggies. It helps that he’s on board and not whining for pasta, and that we have one vegetarian among us. We’ve started making smoothies in addition to eating more as side dishes or main items. Right now, with so much in season, it’s easy to get great stuff. We’ll see what happens when fall and winter roll around.

I’m not trying to be perfect with any of this, which is a tendency of mine. I’m just trying to smooth out the rough edges, to try to make my life better by making some small changes that fit it on with my current lifestyle. A work in progress, as always.

Production and consumption and more about the iPad

16. July 2012 · 7 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

As I’m easing back into the real swing of things, I’ve been thinking more about technology, teaching, etc. A while back, I wrote about some of the limitations of the iPad. Those still stand and then some. I’m writing this on the iPad right now. It’s still more cumbersome than doing it on my laptop. I took the iPad to India with me in order to maintain a blog. To do so, I needed an attachment in order to upload photos from my camera. Yes, you can take photos with the iPad but no one is going to carry an iPad around while touring, and even under the best circumstances, it’s awkward to take photos with it. To upload my photos to Flickr, I had to download another app. It took me a while to find the right one (Flickr stacker, ftw), and I paid for it. With a laptop, I wouldn’t need an extra attachment or an extra app. I already pay for Flickr pro, so it’s not necessary to pay for anything else. Adding pictures to my posts was somewhat painful, and to align them, I had to edit HTML, on the iPad. Ouch. On my laptop, I get the alignment options as I upload or I can change them through a GUI interface. And forget adding or removing widgets on the blog via an iPad. No drag and drop.

Producing anything on the iPad is a challenge. I have yet to use an app that makes creating anything, even just a document, as simple as it is on a computer. Feel free to correct me.

Consuming on the iPad is cake, and I actually prefer it to my laptop, though I know I could add an extension or two and probably be just as happy with consuming on it. I read twitter, google reader, google plus, and various news sources all on the iPad, all in one place. I also read books through different ebook apps. While they’re not perfect (I wish I could share more easily with multiple steams, for example), they work well enough.

Many, many schools are adopting iPads, including my own. There are some cool things one can do on the iPad, and I’m sure more cool things will be developed, but I don’t want us to fall into the trap of thinking that they will solve all of our problems or that they’re “better” than other computing devices. I’ve seen calls of late on the blogs to use the “maker” mentality in education, even the “hacker” mentality. Well, then don’t use an iPad. There’s nothing there to hack. There’s nothing to make on it in the same way one can with some components and a computer. I think we’re contradicting ourselves by saying we want to create producers not consumers and then we hand them an iPad. You can, indeed, produce on the iPad, but you’re going to hit a limit pretty quickly. Personally, I don’t want to put limits on what I can teach kids to create.

And here we go . . .

13. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

So, I’ve nearly cleaned out a room I started working on forever ago when I pledged to spend 15 minutes a day on it.  I bought a shredder to shred all the paper work.  I’ve put most of the stuff on Freecycle and gotten rid of the weirdest things, including my old CD collection, most of which is downloaded into my computer now.  No one seems to want DDR mats or trick or treat bags.  Oh well.  The room I’ve cleaned out is/was the front porch, which was enclosed by the previous owners, but never heated or cooled, so it’s functional maybe 6 months out of the year, fall and spring.  We divided it into a mini mud room and and office, but never quite finished the job.  I’d like to return it to it’s original status as a front porch, but the work and money involved is kind of crazy, so that project will have to wait.

Next, I’ll tackle the coat closet and the other storage places in the now nearly empty front room.  I need to figure out what to do with the room now that it’s not our tv-watching room.  It could be a place to read.  I could see a bar in there, something we don’t have room for elsewhere.  The floors need refinishing, but that, too, is a project that will likely have to wait.

Mr. Geeky is reflooring the third floor, aka the former kid rooms and that space has become office space.  It’s in desperate need of organization as it’s where we started to hide the things we didn’t know what to do with.

Next week, or maybe this weekend, I’m going to be work on my fall classes.  I have two to create/redo.  One is just my 8th grade tech class, which is 10 weeks long, meeting only once a week.  I will make that one more math-y and science-y, which I’m looking forward to.  Then, I’m developing the CS II class, which I have a rough outline of what I want to do, but am not sure about all the specifics, so I’ll try to work out at least the first semester or so.  I’m also going to spend some quality time with Khan Academy to beef up some of my math skills, a good use for that tool, imho.

I’m still going to find time to relax.  Today I’m taking Geeky Girl and a friend to the pool and I’m hoping to spend most of my afternoons not doing a whole lot.  As the school year approaches, I know my free time will dwindle as well, so I’m taking full advantage now.

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